Ronnie James Dio tribute album will arrive April 1

An all-star group of Ronnie James Dio’s friends and fans has created a 13-track tribute album to raise funds for the Ronnie James Dio Stand Up And Shout Cancer Fund (www.diocancerfund.org).

Produced by his longtime manager and wife Wendy Dio, the album “This Is Your Life” includes contributions by metal heavyweights including Metallica, Motörhead, Scorpions, Anthrax and Judas Priest’s Rob Halford, as well as appearances by many musicians who performed with Dio over the years. Before his death from stomach cancer in 2010, Dio fronted a variety of acts, including Dio, Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Heaven & Hell.

The album will arrive April 1, 2014, via Rhino; the retail price is $18.98. Dio does make a cameo on the album; his performance of “This Is Your Life,” on which he was backed only by keyboardists Scott Warren, closes the album.

Tracks and artists featured on “This Is Your Life” follow; tracks designated with * indicate songs that were previously unreleased.

The Ronnie James Dio Stand Up and Shout Cancer Fund is a privately funded charity organization that raises money committed to cancer research efforts, including the T.J. Martell Foundation for Cancer, AIIDS and Leukemia Reserach and the gastric cancer research unit of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where Dio was treated for gastric cancer during the last six months of his life.